age. Yet he cannot be said to have fallen prematurely, whose work was done; nor ought excessive and unmanly wailing to follow one, who died at the height of human fame. The most triumphant death is, that of the martyr; the most aweful, that of the martyred patriot; the most splendid, that of the hero expiring in the hour of victory. He has left. us, not indeed his mantle of inspiration, but a name and an example, which are at this hour inspiring hundreds of the youth of England; a name, which is our pride, and an example,* which will continue to * Nelson seems however, as the Edinburgh Reviewers correctly observe," to have been formed by nature, not only for the highest station-but for no other; and to have been alike incapable of occasionally falling into a subordinate part, and of contenting himself with a share of any joint operation.""If every commanding officer," they justly add, "had acted so completely for himself, and with such disregard of orders or combined plans from home; nay, if only a very few officers had acted so, the speedy ruin of our affairs must have ensued; the army and navy would have become one scene of confusion. Possessing such a commander, the government could not do less than give him it's largest station, and an unlimited discretion in the employment of his forces; but nothing short of wielding all the forces, military as well as naval, wherever he went, would satisfy him: and this appears to have been his desire, as much when he was a Commodore with a few sail under him, as when he commanded the whole Mediterranean and Atlantic. Nay, we find him very frequently interfering in matters merely civil, in political negotiations, and in affairs connected with the relations of peace or war, and of treaties actually pending and wholly unknown to him; and sometimes against orders, and on notions of his own! His Letters (for he always appears to have been a great writer, whether in love or war) contained accounts of his motives, which were generally some vague feeling of his own, or some notion of what was fitting the national character; without the least regard to reason, order, or calculation, his contempt of which he pretty freely expresses: and he often talks of be our shield and our strength. Thus it is, that the spirits of the great and the wise continue to live, and to act after them: -Bursting through the gloom, With radiant glory from the trophied tomb, And shine, and save, through ages yet unborn! His remains, upon their arrival in England, were interred with the utmost national solemnity in St. Paul's Cathedral: and a magnificent provision, both in additional rank and fortune, was made by parliament for his representatives. To enumerate the particular testimonies of veneration borne to the deceased by public bodies, and by distinguished individuals, would indeed be almost an endless labour. But the monument, erected by the grateful metropolis of his country in her Guildhall, is specified, for the sake of introducing it's inscription, which was composed by the late Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan: ΤΟ HORATIO, Viscount and Baron NELSON, Vice-Admiral of the White, and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Bath. A man among the few, who appear at different periods to have been created to promote the grandeur and add to the security of nations; inciting by their high example their fellow-mortals, through all succeeding times, to pursue the course that leads to the exaltation of our imperfect nature. throwing himself upon his country for his defence'—as if the voice of the multitude, and not the order of the government, were the proper rule of an officer!" (xlvi. 405, 406.) PROVIDENCE, that implanted in Nelson's breast an ardent passion for renown, as bounteously endowed him with the transcendent talents necessary to the great purposes he was destined to accomplish. At an early period of life, he entered into the Naval Service of his Country; and early were the instances, which marked the fearless nature and enterprise of his character; uniting to the loftiest spirit, and the justest title to self-confidence, a strict and humble obedience to the sovereign rule of discipline and subordination. and while he acquired the love of all by the sweetness and moderation of his temper, he inspired an universal confidence in the never-failing resources of his capacious mind. It will be for History to relate the many great exploits, through which, solicitous of peril and regardless of wounds, he became the glory of his profession! But it belongs to this brief record of his illustrious career to say, that he commanded and conquered at the Battles of the NILE and COPENHAGEN: Victories never before equalled, yet afterward surpassed by his own last achievement, fought on the 21st of October, in the year 1805. but the sources of life and sense failed not until it was known to him that, the destruction of the Enemy being completed, the glory of his Country and His Own had attained their summit. Then laying his hand on his brave heart, with a look of exalted resignation to the will of the Supreme Disposer of the fate of man and nations, HE EXPIRED. The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London have caused this Monument to be erected; not in the presumptuous hope of sustaining the departed Hero's memory, but to manifest their estimation of the Man, and their admiration of his Deeds. NELSON'S FAME can only be THE END OF TIME! GENERAL INDEX TO THE SIX VOLUMES. A. ABBEYS, effects of the suppression of, i. 220. ABBOT, George, Archbishop of Canterbury, Life of, ii. 519; advanced Abbot, Robert, Bishop of Salisbury, ii. 542. Abstract ideas, dispute on, vi. 73. ADDISON, Joseph, Life of, v. 114; his death, 127, 130; his quarrel with 289. Agitators, in the parliament-army, iii. 262; abolished by Cromwell, 279. " Air-pump, invented by Boyle, iv. 331. Alchemy, Boyle a believer in, iv. 345. Altar, not a proper term for the communion-table, iii. 159. Ambition, ii. 117. America, dispute with, vi. 265, 268. Ancients, wisdom of the, ii. 471. Andrometer, Sir W. Jones', vi. 380-983. Anne of Cleves, married to Henry VIII. i. 192. Anne, Queen, suspected of an inclination to bring in the Pretender, Antiquaries, Society of, founded by Archbishop Parker, i. 534 note. Apsley, Lucy, wife of Sir Allen, her kindness to Sir W. Ralegh, iii. Arbuthnot, John, character of, v. 453. Aristotle, Bacon's remarks on, ii. 431 note. Armada, Spanish, ii. 250. Armagh, Archbishop of. See Usher, James. Arms, profession of, ii. 199. Armstrong, John, his character of Thomson, vi. 40. Army, standing, seeming to wish for one considered as criminal even by 4 |